Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 4

It may be that the souls of all children are waiting for the call of knowledge to awaken them to delightful living. -Charlotte Mason

The drive to homeschool started as a small flame when my oldest was still a toddler and grew into a burning passion. Even when he was in half day preschool, I loved incorporating read alouds, science units and other learning opportunities into our weeks. Making the jump into homeschooling kindergarten was scary at first but I am finding that watching his little mind light up day after day is one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had.

Our week was a short one since we had our annual apple picking trip planned for Thursday-Sunday. We did double up on some lessons in the beginning of the week at Drew’s request so we ended up accomplishing more than I had originally planned for. That being said, it was still a very light week with our CC work.

The extended weekend was packed with some amazing time in nature and lots of hands on learning experiences. My parents wanted to take the kids mining for gems and it was honestly one of the highlights of the trip. As a thirty something year old, I have never experienced the touristy gem mining but it was fun to pretend that we were real miners sifting through all the sand in a steam (man made or not)! Our Airbnb was nestled in Sapphire NC and they actually had a book on all of the rocks so we got to identify the different gems we took home as well!

History

We got to dive into ancient history by exploring the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and what a fun time we had! Between the coloring pages, fun videos and maps we got to immerse ourselves in the travels of ancient peoples!

Our week started off with a fun video explaining the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World on YouTube while coloring pages downloaded from CC Connected (you can also find some free on Pinterest). I also drew the outline of the palace in Babaloyn and let the kids draw plants and flowers all over it for the Hanging Gardens of Babaloyn, this actually turned out to be the kids favorite activity and you only need a piece of paper and some markers.

At the library we explored different books about pyramids and the Seven Wonders. We found a fun book with lots of fun information and pictures/drawings. Of course my boys were just enameled at the fact that the Lighthouse at Alexandria was likely fuled by poop. A toddler boys dream haha!

For a STEM incorporation into our history we also attempted to build a pyramid out of magnatiles, however, we were short a few triangles. But this was a fun challenge that me and Drew attempted to figure out how to build it with the tiles that we did have.

Don’t forget to play the CC song over and over again! Both of my boys love singing along to this weeks catchy song!

Science

Plant cells were the memory work for this week and we explored the concept of how cells makeup living things again. We traveled out and gathered various natural items and talked about how they are all made up of cells. I gave the boys an opportunity to draw the leaves and acorns in their nature journal. The remainder of the week we just enjoyed being out in nature in the mountains, taking hikes and picking apples.

Art

In the first six weeks of Cycle 1, we have been learning various art concepts from the elements of shape to mirror images. This week we explored the world of abstract art.

There was a lot of crazy brush strokes going on in this excercise!